Perspectives and perceptions

For all these years, I've been hearing this oft repeated phrase "Gone with the wind" and I knew it was in reference to the book written by Margaret Mitchell. It was just about fifteen days ago that I finally saw the movie! The first thing that striked me about the movie was the price! I wanted to buy it from the shop, and it was for Rs. 1,500! It must have been some collector's edition, nevertheless, I didn't have so much money to spend on it... So I ended up renting it for the night, little did I know that the entire movie is around 5 and 1/2 hours long... I sit to watch this movie, and it takes me into this different world that I knew very little about. I had only read a little about the Civil War and about the differences that made South and North America.. There was a short introduction to the movie, enabling viewers like me to understand the contexts. Another reference though not so prominent was a book that I had read a couple of years ago (which I re-read m

Last year I'd written about my experience of the festival, and today as I went for this festival, there're host of other things that I've explored! I went to see the festival and the nearby places, with a friend of mine, and the glimpses of our visit are here! A few shots of what caught my eye, and some amazing work done by the artists. As I walked down the road towards Colaba, we saw a couple of artists painting a building, sitting on the sidewalk, just to watch them paint like that was exhilirating to say the least! Then we walked towards the festival and saw these artists painting on canvases, I've managed to grab a few shots of the paintings that he'd just done and I think they're amazing! The festival itself was full of people, food stalls, artefacts, ranging from furniture, to showpieces, chappals, bags, books, greeting cards, and the likes. There were a lot of NGOs who'd set up stalls to generate awareness as also to publicise their range of products

One of the most talked about movies, one that I saw a month later than most... It's a movie, that introduces a sensitive issue to all, one for which there is no awareness, that of dyslexia. A simple story line, revolving around the life of a 9 year old boy, a character beautifully essayed by Darsheel, who has a learning disability that no one diagnoses. He's tormented and hurt by friends, school teachers and most of all by his own father. His mother and brother, try to support him, but without knowledge of his problem, they too are unable to understand him. Shunned into a boarding school, where he faces the same opprobrium, he is lost, unhappy and terribly hurt, when he meets his temporary art teacher, played by aamir khan, who diagnoses his problem and strives to help him. Through creative methods, songs, and most importantly by allowing him to express himself through his wonderful drawings, darshan soon transforms into a boy who's comfortable with himself. Knowing what he

Gay exuberance, joie de vivre, and lots of fresh energy! :) A fun romantic comedy, with a lot of natural acting and chemistry between the two actors on screen.. Simple enough storyline, well depicted mostly.. the only negative aspect were the songs.. Only two of them were slightly acceptable, hummable.. but the rest were a complete misfit. The voice of the singer was utterly unsuitable for Shahid and the beats were complete disco beats which just didn't gel with the ambience and context of the scene, I mean imagine, Shahid's been asked to sing a song in front of her entire (huge) family and he starts singing a song (the name of which i've already forgotten and had to google to find, and the name's hilarious! nagada nagada!! :) ) and this song is bhangra mix with disco beats.. i'm sure it's popular in the discos already, who knows! nevertheless, the characters were pretty well etched, dialogues were easy flowing and quite casual, scenes and picturisations were fa

Just yesterday, on my way back from a day trip to a resort, I was playing Antakshari with my mum and i realised that i was still singing the same songs that i sung when i played with her years ago! Is it because i haven't played antakshari lately that i'm unable to sing any of the new songs, or that the songs aren't singable in the first place! It was agonizing to try and recall songs from new movies, music albums that would match my requirements and i was literally able to only remember "Barso Re" from Guru, and "Piyu Bolo" from Parineeta and "Ankhon ke Sagar" by Fuzon! All the other songs were from DDLJ, and assorted movies way back! This complete lack of singability of new songs is quite unnerving, maybe i should see one of these Antakshari programs to see what they are singing, :) hehe.. i'm sure they too must be stuck on the oldies... They have a beautiful charm to their songs, it's foolish to even compare, "Haal kaisa hai jan

It's time for another movie review! Just recently I happened to see this movie with my family, and i wasn't disappointed! :) While most of the people are cribbing and being very critical about how the movie is so unreal, and ultra-glamourous, I feel it's a decently made movie. Yes it is glamorous and exaggerated, but then, the film-maker has to make his buck too! :) The plot was simple, a poor family in dire need of money, having no resources, Rani being the elder sister, decides to take things into her hands, she comes to Bombay in search of a job, but owing to no qualifications per se (has done only her 10th) she is shunned away from everywhere. She does a few odd jobs but nothing that would sustain her. In the process encounters this Boss who offers her a job with a condition that she sleep with him for a night, in hope of a better future, she foregoes her present. An interesting scene, when she calls up her mother to inform her about the horrendous truth that she would

Having heard rave reviews about this movie from a wide spectrum of people, I finally managed to get myself to go and watch this movie! Oft late, I had been completely avoiding Hindi movies, simply because they never did justice to the issue, the actors and most importantly to the Hollywood movie that they were “inspired” from… But Chak De was refreshingly good! I’ll explain the plot in brief, though it is a commonly known to all by now. Shahrukh Khan, who had been ostracized by the public, after his role as the Captain of the Indian Men’s National Hockey Team which lost the World Cup, comes back after a gap of 7 months to coach the Indian Women’s National Hockey Team. This team has 16 players, from all over the country, A.P., Maharashtra, Chandigarh , Haryana, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Punjab and so on. Each of these girls has a definition to her character which is a mélange of cultures, languages, references and attitudes. The journey from being raw individual players to

Like millions of people, i had ordered my copy of the latest Harry Potter Book in advance and like most expectations i was disappointed! Those 600 pages seemed so dry and devoid of passion that i literally blazed through the first 300 at least.. it was only when i'd finished half the book, did i find something interesting.. The speed at which i was reading reminded me of the time i read, One Night at a Call Centre.. Point being, books have to have to ability to make you want to go slow, they should compel you to think, feel, assimilate and then read... This book however, goes on and on without any pause and by the time you know it, you're done with it!! It's literally been around 4 - 5 hours of reading and i'm through with the book. Makes me wonder, whether killing off so many characters left Rowling with nothing interesting to build her story upon, or did she simply run out of ideas! There were no new spells, Harry's quest was more like last minute luck and chance

I happened to see Cheeni Kum movie recently and i certainly enjoyed it better than Pirates of the Carribean - something something... It's a sarcastic love story of this 64 yr old arrogant chef/owner of the top Indian restaurant in London (Amitabh) who meets a 30 something visitor from India (Tabu) and then falls into love with her and so on. Amitabh and Tabu were amazing, crispy dialogues filled with sarcasm and dark humour, it was enjoyable to see their flirtatious romance! The few elements in the movie that could've been done away with : - Character of "Sexy" played by a 9 yr old Sweeni, who's character is shown to be that of a young girl plagued with cancer, and who happens to be the chef's best friend and neighbour. She just didn't fit anywhere, there was no need for her character. - Paresh Rawal, i felt was wasted in the movie, having had to play the role of the gandhian father-in-law who refuses to accept a person elder to him as his son-in-law and

I've read this book fairly recently and ever since I've been thinking of writing a review, but the truth is you don't just write a review on a book such as the Atlas Shrugged. Nevertheless, i will make an attempt. This book has more or less the same theme that was explored in the Fountainhead, however, there the book revolved around the heroic in one man and his triumph over the society, where as, in this book, they've again explored the heroic in the man although there are many in number all across the country and how their strike against the establishment and society changed economic, social perceptions and how it literally brought the world to a dead-end. The book, exceeded expectations and was far more clean, strong and tall in comparison to the Fountainhead. There were no frivolous characters, and each of the characters was as well etched as Roark had been, simply because even though there was a central protagonist in this book as well, the others had equal depth.

For the NRI i would say this movie would bring out a few similarities and perspectives, but for an indian, this movie is a welcome change from the various cliches of indians going abroad and about their perceptions of the country.. The script of the movie is very much based on the book with almost no obvious changes, in fact the movie is so well made that it literally makes the book come alive in the true sense of the word without compromising on our imagination, usually movies tend to be below the expectation but this one has definitely lived up and more to the expectations.. the same plot, filled with vivid characters and sharp language, the easy flow of the language, from english to bengali and back, brings the characters to life, you'd wonder whether it is acting or is it natural, it's really that beautiful.. Tabu's make-up though could have been done better, even when she's supposed to look young, her skin looks terribly patchy, like a compact that simply went wron